Marketing

 

 

 

 

 

Running Head: Strategic Management Homework

 

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Table of content

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Environment of the organization ……………………………………………………..2

Marketing ……………………………………………………………………………..3

Globalization …………………………………………………………………………..3

Innovation …………………………………………………………………………….3

Inbound logistics ………………………………………………………………………4

Outbound logistics …………………………………………………………………….5

SWOT analysis ………………………………………………………………………..5

Recommendations ……………………………………………………………………..6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strategic Management Homework

Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company is the leading producer and distributor of soft drinks through out the world. It has over four hundred brands of beverages and has been in operation since 1886. This company had a humble beginning in John Syth’s backyard somewhere in Atlanta Georgia. He came up with a concoction of caramel colored syrup, which he distributed, from a jug in his pharmacy. From that point, the product grew and spread all over the world. This company manufactures the syrup ingredients, which it sells to the bottlers, located in various parts of the world. It has grown to adopt the status of a multinational company. It has confidential trade secrets of its formula that guarantees the uniqueness of the product. This essay is about the management strategies of the Coca Cola Company, which can only be determined by performing an assessment of the organization’s internal and external environment by the use of scanning tools such as value chain analysis, key success factors among others. This assessment also includes a scrutiny of the SWOT analysis and recommendations to the company to improve on its performance.

Environment of the organization

The products distributed under the brand name of Coca Cola are all consumer products. These products are considered inexpensive and the most refreshing soft drinks. In fact, research shows that most people are never willing to go without these soft drinks even when faced with a decline in income. There are various tools used to assess the environment of an organization. The first tool is the key success factors. Coca-Cola is a successful trademark, recognized by over ninety-four percent of the world’s populace. The main key success factors include Marketing, Globalization and Innovation. These factors are discussed below.

 

Marketing

The Coca-Cola Company is considered to be among the companies, which came up with the contemporary marketing strategies. They came up with advertising policies aimed at captivating people’s attention. They have been using the slogan delicious and refreshing formula for the past one hundred years in many countries of the world. Through such intensive advertising campaigns, the company has developed a reflection in people’s minds, which click immediately the brand is mentioned. Coca Cola products are widely related to refreshing moments, good times and celebrations.

Globalization

Coca Cola Company is widely known for its globalization. It has distributors in almost all the countries of the world. Apart from the Middle East, these products are embraced in such a way that all the countries consider it as their own product. This can partly be attributed to the fact that it has existed globally for many years and partly for the strategies that they use. All the subsidiary companies in different parts of the world operate as though they belong to their respective companies, hiring labor from their own as well as contributing to the economic development of the country by paying taxes and participating in the development enhancement programs. This has led to the company being accepted and its products celebrated in these countries, guaranteeing their success.

Innovation

The soft drinks market is a very dynamic one due to the innovations, which come up each day. The Coca Cola Company counteracts this by coming up with new advertising strategies and delivering new products into the market systematically. Sometime back, they had started experiencing a fall in profits due to the growing competition. This acted as a wake up call and they had to come up with unique measures to enable them maintain the lead. They moved from producing a single product to a diversified beverage company. One of the most amazing innovations in this company is the production of recyclable bottles, which are returned to the bottlers after the drinks have been consumed. They also came up with beverages with nutritional values and bottled water in order to expand their market share.

The other tool used to analyze the environment of this company is the value chain analysis. This is a model used to classify a firm into the relevant value producing activities in order to perform an evaluation of how the activities contribute to the performance of the organization. Through this, it is possible to expand the imminent on how the company generates competitive advantage and how it adds value to its stakeholders. The value chain in the Coca Cola Company is made up of five activities. These are the inbound logistics, outbound logistics, operations, services and finally sales and marketing. The most significant activities are the Inbound and Outbound logistics discussed below.

Inbound logistics

This represents the suppliers. The Coca Cola Company has a wide variety of suppliers, who provide them with machinery, packaging materials and ingredients. The Company has in place some standards to ensure that the supplies are in good conditions and effective in performance. They have to adhere to the laws of the country, the labor laws and the freedom of association laws. In case a supplier does not comply with the necessary standards, the company has the provision of allowing them time to change failure of which they are forced to terminate the contract.

 

Outbound Logistics

This involves the customers. It is the set of activities required for the products to reach the customers. This includes order implementation, warehousing, management of the distribution channels and transportation. The Coca Coal Company owns the World’s leading distribution channels in form of retail stores, restaurants, roadside kiosks and numerous mobile distributors all over the world. These channels are managed differently in different countries by the respective bottlers operating in those regions. They use a wide range of transportation services, from lorries to small carriage vehicles. Some countries have also adopted boats as a means of delivering the drinks to the customers.

SWOT analysis

Just like any other company, the Coca Cola Company has some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. On the strength, this company is highly recognized globally. The fact that it is universally accepted makes people more comfortable with the product. The trend of consuming products from Coca Cola is passed down the generations and so it is not about to die anytime soon. This company has limited weaknesses. The most outstanding one however is that most of its products lack nutritional value. Some are said to be a source of excess weight and are shunned by the nutritionist. The Coca Cola Company still has many opportunities. They should take advantage of the popularity of their existing products and introduce other new products under the same brand name. An example of this is the introduction of new flavor of the Fanta soda. Away from these, the Coca Cola Company is faced with numerous threats. The major one is the increasing need in people to consume the natural homemade products. This puts the company at risk of losing a large number of its customers.

 

Recommendations

The Coca Cola Company should capitalize on its strengths and be open to more opportunities. In business, there are never enough profits. Despite its large-scale operations, it still needs to expand more and get to the regions where it has not yet been established. An example of such a region is the Middle East where the Pepsi Company is dominant. They should come up with a strategy that will enable them to take over the market in this region by outdoing their competitors. They should also consider their weaknesses and threats and come up with ways of minimizing if not eliminating them. One of the ways they can do this is by manufacturing natural drinks under their brand name, so that even the nutritionists can have a product from the Coca Cola Company to consume.